Kevin Kline Quotes
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I've never felt completely satisfied with what I've done. I tend to see things too critically. I'm trying to get over that.
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The worth of a life is not determined by a single failure or a solitary success.
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Nothing makes an actor feel freer and more inventive and more creative than being trusted.
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I'm a real pushover for animals.
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Hindsight. It's like foresight without a future.
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I like variety, which is frustrating. But I've always been picky. I was afraid Pirates would be too much like Twentieth Century, broad comedy. But my agent talked me into it. I was spoiled by the range of a repertory theater.
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But, I do think, on a very simplistic level, that we can project onto dogs because they are so innocent. They don't come with a lot of baggage.
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I see a steady downward slope toward oblivion over the next three years. I'm pessimistic. Everything that's happened to me so far has been kind of flukey. I went into Twentieth Century because I wanted to work for Hal Prince. The part was too small according to my agent. I had been doing only leading parts, and he thought I should continue that. But the part was enlarged in rehearsal: songs were added, and it became more physicalized and showy. Then I won awards and got attention.
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I totally related to Cole Porter's magnetic pull to any piano that was in the room, which he was famous for doing, as was Gershwin. You couldn't drag them away from a piano.
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Most of the comedies I've done have been rather farcical and extravagant.
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Don't kiss a man who hasn't shaved.
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It never ceases to surprise me, the people I get to work with. I'm in a French film with Sandrine Bonnaire? I adore Sandrine Bonnaire. I'm doing a picture for Robert Redford? The Sundance Kid? I have to pinch myself sometimes.
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I never went to class. That the university graduated me at all is an indictment of our educational system.
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I had studied piano since I was 13, but I was surrounded by students who'd been playing since they were 5. I realized I was never going to be anything but mediocre.
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I just don't think I'm a very good singer.
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Playing Shakespeare requires technique. You don't play a Bach toccata by getting in the mood.
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The technique's many benefits for actors include minimized tension, centeredness, vocal relaxation, and responsiveness, mind/body connection and about an inch and a half of additional height.
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I've done a couple of movies for scale, and it's the only way to get a lot of these independent movies made. The actors negotiate deals where they're given just enough money to live on during the filming, but then they participate in the back-end. If the movie suddenly makes a gazillion dollars, we'll participate in that profit.
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But you have to trust your instincts. Because you're not going to try it 20 different ways during rehearsal. You'll try it two or three different ways, maybe, but then you've got five other scenes you're shooting that day. You've got to keep going.
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Nobody sees the same movie. I'm sure there are people who saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and thought 'Finally a gay movie about men who really care about each other. Thank God!' That's not what I saw necessarily - but I don't think any two people see the same movie.
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Ambition without contribution is of no significance.
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It was all completely incomprehensible to me. I was fearful of the language. You had to look up every third word.
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I see God as a song-and-dance man. If I had my way, he'd be able to carry a tune, too. Preferably, one of mine.
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I've got the Jewish guilt and the Irish shame and it's a hell of a job distinguishing which is which.